The Great Debate

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Britain’s new coalition government likes to remind voters we are all in this together. The phrase is rather glib. But in an important sense savers and borrowers around the world are finding the costs of reckless lending are falling on the innocent and guilty alike.

from Rolfe Winkler:

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The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp tried to seize and sell Cleveland thrift AmTrust last January but local politicians intervened. In the end, the bank still went bust 11 months later - a delay that may have increased losses to the U.S. regulator’s funds. As Congress debates banking reform, AmTrust provides a useful warning that the regulatory apparatus needs to be kept free from politics.

from Rolfe Winkler:

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There's good news and bad news in the FDIC's quarterly profile of the banking sector. The good news is that FDIC has more resources than you think to handle the problem banks on its radar. The bad news is that the too-big-to-fail banks aren't on it.

from Commentaries:

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That's the message from the government's reluctance to swoop in and bail out one of the nation's biggest commercial lenders, CIT Group Inc, as it struggles to stay afloat. But even though CIT doesn't have the firepower to take down the global financial system, its failure would certainly be felt by some of the struggling small businesses that rely on its financing.